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ATMIA: The ATM integrated payments standards guide workshop

Panelists discuss the document that keeps the industry "open" and marketable to the public.

March 8, 2012 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

Anyone who thinks "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" has never tried to operate an ATM network. Besides, the complete quote (from Ralph Waldo Emerson) starts, "a foolishconsistency …" There's nothing remotely foolish about the ATM Integrated Payments Standards Beat Practices guide currently being drafted by the International Payments Forum. Integrated payments standards are what make the industry work — and what make it marketable to the consumer.

At ATMIA US, the IPF offered an update on their efforts with the guide in a three-hour workshop. Forum chairman and workshop moderator Lyle Elias opened the session with a look at the IPF and its objectives with the guide, all of which served an overarching goal, he said "to create and promote a perception among consumers of the ATM as a touchpoint in their daily lives and activities."

Elias went on to explain that in this capacity, the ATM will need to provide an increasing number of services that consumers require for personal and professional transactions:

• mobile payments
• contactless payments
• cardless payouts
• cash acceptance
• dynamic currency conversion

Elias also outlined the need for ATM pay-in and pay-out standards that would offer four payment options: check, card, cash or token. These would enable money transfers, bill payments and card loading he said.

Eventually, Elias said, operators would also find themselves with a Virtual ATM option, as well. This patent-pending method would enable a virtual account management system that consumers could use as a mobile or PC application and that would enable third-party transactions.

The system would utilize existing EFT infrastructure and could be integrated into existing terminals with relative ease, he said. "What today is being done on a kiosk can be done on an ATM," Elias said. "There's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be."

All of these trending formats, would demand "an open standards approach for creating a consistent delivery channel for alternative payment options for consumers through the ATM," Elias said.

The benefits of open standards, he said, would accrue not only to the ATM user, but also to the deployer, in the form of:

• turnkey solutions with minimal back office integration
• More payment options and enhanced functionality
• reduced certification time and cost with payments networks
• Homogeneous consumer experience and ubiquitous product awareness

Elias turned over the podium to workshop panelists who described their roles in the development of the best practices document and the critically important guidance it would provide to ATM industry members seeking to operate a profitable enterprise. A snapshot of some of the key aspects of guide development follows.

David J. Cavell, FCIB Consulting

Cavell explained that his role was to act as lead author for the development of the best practices document, compiling and organizing contributors' documents in order to generate a first draft of the best practices document by May 31.

The overall objective, Cavell said was "to produce a document that is clear and rational to both an operational and technical audience that has a defined scope and transaction set to which it applies, and that has international relevance." This document would form the basis for later editions and supplementary documents dealing with adjacent issues.

Donna Embry, SVP Strategic Development, Payment Alliance International

"How do I make it work?" said Embry, describing her role in the project. "What are we missing? What are the categories we need to add to it to make it work? … What we're putting together for you is really a how-to guide by application."

For each ATM business application, Embry has built a guide section to explain machine requirements, interface requirements, operational impacts, consumer marketing, metrics to gauge success and, perhaps the trickiest of all, compliance guidelines. "If you're an IAD you may have a different rule for every state," Embry said.

Carol Van Cleef, Partner, Patton Boggs LLP

Van Cleef enlarged upon the themes of regulation and compliance, saying that ATM owners could expect to feel increasing pressure from the federal government as the growing capabilities of their machines enabled them to perform a variety of new financial services. "It's going to be incumbent upon you to know these laws and how they work," she said. "The more opportunities you put on that machine, the more opportunities you are creating for it to be used for criminal activities."

For instance, said Van Cleef, as they added features such as cash deposit, ATM operators would find themselves under increasing scrutiny vis-à-vis statues such as 18 USC 1956 and 1957, which pertain to the conduct or intent to conduct any financial transaction involving the proceeds of any Specified Unlawful Activity.

"You've got a federal statute that says you're not supposed to accept money from any person involved in a criminal activity," Van Cleef said. "You might know you have an ATM in a high financial crimes drug-dealing area. And you have reason to know that drug dealers are using it. You've got to know." Otherwise, she said, operators could find themselves tangled in legal suits accusing them of aiding and abetting illegal acts, or at the very least of turning a blind eye to their occurrence. The results, Van Cleef said, could prove catastrophic to an ATM business.

T. Jack Williams, President, Payment Card Services

In a closing segment, Williams underscored the importance of uniform procedures with examples from Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake. Even in a disaster as huge in scope as the Haiti earthquake, he said, the one thing people did not leave behind as their homes crumbled was their mobile. And while cell towers were down immediately after the quake, they were quickly restored to service.

Had New Orleanians' and Haitians' mobile phones been enabled for ATM access on open platforms, Williams said, more might have been able to pay for essential food and medical treatment after a catastrophic disaster and fewer might have died. "The universal solution is mobile," Williams said. "Use of a mobile phone to facilitate a universal network of ATMs with authorization, clearing and settlement functionality will drive recovery. If this becomes a reality, you are the key, the focal point of recovery, interoperability. Money makes the world go around and you make the money go around. By having a mobile solution, you prevent chaos."

For more on this topic, visit our networking/connectivity research center.

About Suzanne Cluckey

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Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.

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ATM Industry Association (ATMIA)

The ATM Industry Association, founded in 1997, is a global non-profit trade association with over 10,500 members in 65 countries. The membership base covers the full range of this worldwide industry comprising over 2.2 million installed ATMs.

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